Product Description

This charming Christmas fable begins with a dilemma: A writer has been asked by "The New York Times" to write a story that will appear in the paper on Christmas morning. The man agrees, but he has a problem: How do you write an unsentimental Christmas story? He unburdens himself to his friend at his local cigar shop, a colourful character called Auggie Wren. 'A Christmas story? Is that all?' Auggie counters. 'If you buy me lunch, my friend, I'll tell you the best Christmas story you've ever heard. And I guarantee every word of it is true.' What follows is utterly beguiling - a story involving a blind woman, a lost wallet, and a Christmas dinner - in which everything is turned upside down and the lines between truth and story telling become brilliantly blurred.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9024 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 48 pages

About the Author
Paul Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey in the United States in 1947. After attending Columbia University, he lived in France for four years. Since 1974 he has published poems, essays, novels, screenplays and translations. He was the editor of the short story anthology, True Tales of American Life. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Customer Reviews

The making of 'Smoke'.
Auggie Wren runs a store where you can buy tobacco and magazines. One day a youth steels a few paperbacks and Augggie Wren runs after him. The young man loses his wallet and Auggie stops to pick it up. He looks in the wallet and finds the address
of what turns out to be the grandmother of our young delinquent. ( I can't tell anymore without spoiling the plot ).

Film director Wayne Wang was seduced by this little story and it was he who persuaded Paul Auster to write the script for "Smoke". (1994).

The present edition of "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" has two parts. The first part is a kind of introduction and uses a scene from the film where Auggie shows his photo collection to Paul. Even in this introduction reality and fiction are intertwined to become one and the same.(And isn't this the true value of literature, to erase the borderline between dreams and every day reality ?).
The second part is the story like it was told by Harvey Keitel in "Smoke".
At the end Paul Auster says: " As long as there's one person to believe it, there's no story that can't be true."

Auster's Classic Brought To You In Tactile Covers!
The story contained in these pages is a short one, yet featuring the colourful character of Auggie Wren, Brooklyn cigar store proprietor, it overflows with meaning, optimism and humanity. Fans of Auster will nod at the author's traditional appearance in his own work, casting as he does, some doubt about whether the story is a "true" one or merely another work of fiction. "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" exists in that uncertain, unknowable hinterland between Auster's reality and the reader's. Beautifully bound and illustrated, for existing disciples of Paul Auster, this is a neat and welcome trinket that will sit proudly in the collection. For newcomers, both the tale itself and the accompanying images drawn so playfully by illustrator "Isol" will serve as a useful entry point for the ambiguous worls of the author.

Perfect for Christmas
This is a lovely short story suitable for anyone! Its a feel-good tale, perfect for a light bedtime read